A retired Indonesian army colonel has the first time admitted that five foreign journalists working in East Timor in 1975 were deliberately shot by the Indonesian army.

Retired Colonel Gatot Purwanto, a former special forces commando and a veteran of the Timor invasion, told a magazine that the reporters were killed when soldiers heard gunfire coming from the house where the journalists, known as the Balibo Five, were hiding.
 

According to retired Colonel Purwanto, "Suddenly there was gunfire from the house where the journalists were hiding. Maybe somebody tried to rescue them. Soldiers immediately opened fire at a house. All of the journalists were then found dead".
 

Indonesia has always maintained that the journalists - two Australians, two Britons and a New Zealander - were killed in crossfire as Indonesian forces entered the town of Balibo. Indonesia invaded East Timor after the former Portuguese colony declared independence.
 

A feature film about the journalists' deaths, called Balibo, was banned in Indonesia last week. The film, directed by Robert Connelly and starring Anthony LaPaglia, lays the blame for the killings squarely on the Indonesian army.